New Year

I'm excited for 2010! As my husband and I were leaving the sizzler last night, we felt full and a little glutenous after eating at the giant buffet. When we got home, my headache began, and did not let up ALL night. I went to the gym and ran five miles (in 43 min 50 sec) and walked one, and I STILL felt bloated. I will not do that to myself again! In 2010 I'm eliminating pop and fast food, and sizzler. My sweetheart and I are going to train for a half marathon and run it together. It should be a good year!

Ding Dong Ditch

We went ding dong ditching as a family tonight. We made plates of goodies (I used all whole wheat flour ~ oops) and chose ten families in our ward that we thought could use some Christmas cheer. We put the plates on the doorstep, knocked on the door, and ran to our get away van. It was so FUN! I noticed that Ryan took the hiding much more seriously than I do. At one place, Bryce and I took a plate to a third story apartment and Ryan moved to van to a more inconspicuous place on the street. To get back to the van, Bryce and I had to jump a ditch filled with water ~ but when I landed I did so into a mushy patch of muddy grass. ICK! I was wearing these cute white shoes, too. We also looked at Christmas lights, sang Christmas songs, and got a treat at Dairy Queen. We had a great time, and I think it will be a great family tradition.

Holidate

My sweetheart and I had the best date! I've always wanted to go to downtown Seattle around Christmas, but I never had. I envisioned sipping hot chocolate while strolling down the street and taking in all the holiday sights ~ and that's exactly what we did.

We rode the lightrail for the first time and got right to the heart of the shopping district without having to find/pay for parking. We had sushi and got egg nog. It was the perfect date!

Parker's "Performance"

We had our Christmas party at church tonight. All the primary kids put on the Nativity play. Parker was a shepherd and Bryce was a wiseman. The whole thing started out great. Then Parker got bored and laid down. Then when lolling on the floor wasn't fun anymore, he got up and sat in Baby Jesus' cradle ~ he was quickly ushered off stage. When he came back onstage, he immediately became bored again and laid down again. Next he decided to walk off stage AGAIN! I heard the tone of his bad attitude as he was talking to the very sweet, helpful stagehand. When he made his final appearance onstage, he was not wearing his costume and he refused to sing for the last song. That's my Parker!

Fashionista

My sweet baby boy kept bringing me articles of clothing to help him get on. This is the outfit he came up with: Baseball t-shirt, black belt, black undies, black and tan socks, blue spiderman sandals. Very stylish, son! ( somehow we always miss the pants at our house )

Happy Thanksgiving

Saturday night was BECU night at Costco where they offered free pictures with Santa. I dressed the kids in their matching sweaters (even Halea) and prepared by taking some practice pictures of all four kids on our couch ~ that didn't turn out very well. No big surprise there.

We packed the kids in the van and drove to Costco. Parker got in a bad mood in the van and since he's a little grudge holder, he was still in a bad mood as we headed in to Costco. He maintained the bad mood as we got in line for pictures. He was angry and howling about who know's what. Ryan decided to take all three boys for a walk while I waited in line. He came back twenty minutes later ~ and I may have moved five feet. He took the boys away again. In the next ten minutes, the line moved at lightening speed. I found myself at the front of the line with my beautiful little girl who was wearing a boy sweater and NO ONE to match her. She got santa pictures by herself.

I was irritated at first. Irritated that there are so many cheap people who want free santa pictures. Irritated that my four year old has the impeccable timing he does, and decides to get in one of "his moods" at the worst times. Irritated that my sweet, supportive, dad-of-the-year husband didn't come back to check on me. Irritated that my phone drown in my purse that morning when my water bottle dumped so I couldn't call my sweetheart and tell him to come back. And irritated that my baby girl had to wear a boy sweater for solo santa pictures ~I would have dressed her in something pink and frilly if I had know she would have been alone.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and as my irritation has subsided I realized how grateful I am that Costco does this each year and I can't blame anyone for taking advantage of it the way we try to. I'm also grateful for Parker's strong spirit, even if it gets in the way of my plans sometimes. Blessed that I have my husband and best friend wrapped in to one amazing person that I get to share my life with. Still looking for the silver lining of my phone dying, but I'm sure I'll find it. And I feel blessed to have a beautiful daughter who can look adorable in whatever she's wearing. I do recognize that I have an awesome life and I'm grateful for it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble!

I like to think of things from the turkey's perspective. I don't think the turkey likes Thanksgiving as much as we all do. Poor turkey.

Bryce very much enjoys helping prepare the turkey ~ complete with putting his hand where the turkey's bottom hole was and pulling out all the groddies from inside. Again, poor turkey.

I've made a huge mistake...

I took all three little ones to Costco this morning. We have been using knock off brand diapers and it was either buy another pack of leaky diapers or brave the trip to Costco to get our normal Huggies. While we were there, I noticed that they had all the Christmas stuff out, including the toys. In the past I've waited until after Thanksgiving to buy my kid's Christmas presents and they are totally sold out at Costco by that time. So I bought most of the kids presents today ~ while they were watching. Apollo didn't realize what was going on, but Parker totally did. He fell asleep in the car, so I was hoping maybe he would think he had a great dream where mom bought the whole toy isle at Costco ~ but no such luck. Since he woke up he's been asking where all the toys are, and he knows what each of them are specifically. I hope he doesn't blow it by telling Bryce what he's getting. Crap.

On the road to healing

Apollo is the happiest when he's surrounded by stuffed animals. He brings them to me throughout the day so I can squeeze them while rubbing my face on them and saying "cozy". In these photos he managed to stack all the pillows and gather a few of his favorite stuffed animal friends "Elephant" and "Puppy" ~ as he has named them. The good news is that he and all of his siblings are getting better. Ryan is better, too. It's been tough, but I think it was a blessing. It made me slow down and spend time at home focusing on what really matters.

Moving Day

Yesterday was moving day for Halea ~ and Bryce. I've had a hard time sleeping with Halea in our room and I finally had enough. Having all the kids being sick, sleep has been harder to come by with my children playing musical beds. SO ~ we moved Bryce's bed into Parker and Apollo's room, but left his dresser and other "stuff" in his old room, and moved Halea into Bryce's old room. The boys are thrilled to all be together and Halea isn't seeming to mind her new room. It's a win~ win for everyone (especially me).

Life is still hard right now....

I was so looking forward to teaching my class this morning. I've gone a week without good sleep and I've been dealing with our family's illnesses ~ my class is an instant mood elevator and a break from my "right now crappy life" (because it's not always crappy, just right now). I went out to warm up the van and it wouldn't start. Instead all the lights, door locks, hazard lights, radio, turned on, so I don't think it's a low battery. I had to call and cancel my class. I'm feeling very wo is me "ish" right now. I know this is a time when I should reflect upon how blessed I am, but I'm just feeling so down. I need a good night's sleep.

Lil' Update

So I had a glorious morning with just Apollo and Halea. I cleaned and read books to them. It was wonderful. Than I got the call from Bryce's school that he had a temp of 100.3 ~ and that I needed to come get him. The attitude I got from the office ladies!!! Don't judge me! Bryce told them the whole story of his temp being 99.9 this morning, so I guess I deserved it. His temp is 98.7 right now. Maybe I should take him back to school.

Life is hard right now....

Life is hard for me right now. Three of my kids are sick, and last night Ryan came down with whatever they have. It's not swine flu, but I almost think that's worse because they have to suffer through without antiviral meds like tamiflu.

Bryce is driving me nuts! He's sick and whiney, but sassy at the same time. It's like he's torn between two worlds ~ being a baby and being a man ~ but he's sick and whiney, too. He's returning to school today. The school nurse said he needs to have a temp below 100 for 24 hours before he can return to school ~ his temp is 99.9 right now, so he's returning to school. If I get a call later today to pick him up, I'm ok with that.

Apollo is so needy when he's sick, but that's so out of the norm for him that I'm enjoying it. It's hard to balance meeting his needs with Halea's because she's extra needy right now with her first ear infection. Apollo dumped all of her antibiotics onto the carpet yesterday.

Parker is my low maintenance child right now ~ what a blessing! I know this time will pass, but it really sucks right now.

Update

If you read my haunted house post, you know that I have a hard time with getting old ~ and usually I try to laugh my way through things that make me uncomfortable. I figured that I could do my comedy bit today during my class. However, the senior's class instructor did not show up today and there was a sea of elderly people greeting me this morning wanting to take my class. I think Heavenly Father is trying to get me to face the reality that I will get old, but I can choose whether or not to take care of myself and determine how I live out my elderly years. There was a super cute old lady in class today. She couldn't do the exercises with high weight or do full range of motion, but she tried, and she smiled through the whole class. That's the kind of old lady I want to be.

Parker Too

When we were trick-or-treating we went to a house where there lived a little dog named Parker. We explained to our Parker that the little dog's name is Parker, too. Ever since we left that house, Parker has been talking about Parker too. How much he wants Parker too to live with us. He thinks the dog's name is Parker too, just like we told him it was.

Haunted House

Normally when you think of a haunted house, you think of witches, ghosts, vampires, etc. Last night Ryan took Bryce and Parker to his mom's nursing home for a Halloween carnival and trick-or-treating. They had a great time and came home with buckets of candy. Yay for them! This morning I started thinking about what is really scary to me. It's not the witches, ghosts, vampires, etc. It's losing my mobility and my mind and being forgotten in a facility ~ waiting to die. Now that's scary!

I do comedy routines when I have my strength class holding plank ~ it really helps us get through it. So I planned on making a joke out of my fear of the nursing home. I was excited about it. But today was a different day. More than half of my class was senior citizens so I opted out of my comedy routine. And plank was that much harder.

Halloweeners!!!

I was so blessed today! I have been trying to pull together Halloween costumes for the kids without spending much money ~ but I haven't been able to find anything.

Today I went to this awesome consignment store and found a

batman costume for Bryce and a robin costume for Parker. I felt extra blessed because the odds were against me for finding costumes that go together like that for boys that are almost six years apart.

Parker is thrilled with his new costume and so am I!

It's not a secret that I consider family pictures to be my personal hell. Although I LOVE to have photos of our family, I HATE sitting down to have someone take our pictures.

This morning, Bryce was taking pictures of Halea for his reflections contest. The theme is Beauty Is..., so he decided to do a portrait of Halea. He did a good job. Some were blurry, but he got one really nice one (and that's all it takes).

All the kids flocked to watch Bryce photograph Halea. And since I had all of them in one spot, I thought I'd try to get a nice picture of all four of my babies. It was a nice effort, but a better reminder that family pictures are my personal hell.

Candy Land

It's a rainy day outside, so I thought we would try playing a board game inside. Parker and Apollo agreed that we should play candyland. Everything was going well until Apollo flipped the board and then Parker took it away from him. Apollo's chair toppled over and he became even more angry. We decided to put candyland away, and try it another day.

My son the drag queen...

Remember when I was a den mother? I had a ton of glitter and other craft crap from that, and recently Apollo figured out how to get in to the drawer where I was keeping all of that stuff. After he sprinkled blue glitter all over his face, it didn't take long for the irritation of glitter in his eyes to set in~ you may notice the pink rings around his eyes. It took forever to get the glitter off, and we threw away all of my craft crap. I hate crafts.

Hypocrit

After I made such a big deal about Ryan's dorkfest ~ I had a humble awakening today. I'll just say what I did and get it out of the way. I think I seem pretty cool ~ I'm laid back, not overly judgmental of others, friendly, etc. Inside, I am not as cool as I seem on the outside. I'm not getting to the point am I? Ok, here it is. I dressed me and my four children in matching sweaters today ~ and I LIKED it!!! It was an outward expression of my inner dork.

Dorkfest '09

My sweet husband is hosting dorkfest '09 (actually it's the fourth one this year ~ but who's counting?) Dorkfest is what I call it when my sweetheart invites three boy friends over and they play Lord of the Rings Risk while watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy ~ very dorky, I know ~ hence the name. And while he's occupied, I have a chance to wax, pop zits, give myself a mini facial, mani/pedi, whatever. I can do that stuff whenever I want to, but it's nice to do it on a quiet night when he's having dorkfest. It started at 3 pm, and will go until the wee hours of the morning or when they put a time cap on it. So, a happy dorkfest to all!

Mom~mee!!!

I'm pleased to announce that yesterday morning, Halea said her first word. Mommy. Actually she wailed it! I was having a peaceful time reading my scriptures and I could hear her getting a little fussy, and then she exploded with crying and in the midst of it was her first word MOM~MEE!!! I just love that girl!

Whistle Blower

Parker came home with a whistle from school yesterday. It was wrapped up in it's shiny new package, so it had never been opened. Parker was thrilled to open it, and it wasn't long before he made a secret code involving the whistle being blown and me needing to meet him outside. That lasted for a little while until the whistle got lost ~ and made it's way back into Parker's school bag. We'll see what kind of fun he has with it at school.

STUCK!

I'm happy to say that no one died, or cut their hair while I was at my zumba training on Saturday. This is the only near disaster, but really not bad.

Apollo can figure out how to get almost anything he wants. We keep the pediasures, cereal, and lunch snacks (all the processed crap) in this cabinet. He stood on the dryer door to lift himself on top of the dryer. He proceeded to pull out all the stuff on the bottom shelf and climb into the cabinet.

Ryan, because he is unable to multi task, finally found where the screaming was coming from, to hear Apollo say his first sentence .... I can't get down! Of course the loving father he is, Ryan left Apollo and got the camera to remember this moment.

I'm glad everyone was ok while I enjoyed my day out.

What a day!

I don't have any pictures yet, but I thought it was worth noting. Monday Bryce came home from school early because he wasn't feeling well. He seemed to get progressively worse, and by Tues afternoon, I took him to the Dr. office. I figured we would get him tested for swine flu (which came back negative) and be on our way, with home instructions. Well, the Dr. found that he was having a breathing issue that was serious enough to keep us in the office for two and a half hours. When we left, we were sent to the hospital to get a chest x-ray to see if he had pneumonia or asthma (neither). He ended up having a bad case of bronchitis and has been home from school all week. Sooooo, Tuesday night when we finally arrived home, I noticed that Parker's hair was looking choppy. Not just in one or two spots, but all around his head. I asked Ryan if he had cut Parker's hair, and he hadn't and had not seen Parker cutting it, either. Parker 'fessed up to having cut his own hair, and he was quite proud of the job he had done. Also, I forgot to mention that Tues morning my friend from the Y asked me if our family could be interviewed for a tv promotion for the new Y on Wed morning ~ I committed to doing the interview and now it was late Tuesday night and there was no time to fix his hair. So Parker looks like our malnourished, bad haircut little boy. I did finally get around to fixing his hair and I had to give him a military cut because that's how short he chopped it himself. He does look pretty cute. I'll post picts when I get around to taking some.

Vasectomy Who?

My loving husband went in for his vasectomy six months ago, just after Halea was born. I felt like it was a rash decision and that we should have one more baby, but I couldn't see how I would be able to handle any more. I was struggling with the adjustment of have four babies, and never wanted to go through another pregnancy again, so he had a vasectomy. As time has gone on and I've gotten my body back quickly, my heart has ached because I don't feel like our family is all here yet. This is where Heavenly Father has stepped in again. After two tests, Ryan is still fertile. We feel like this is a sign and we're not going to mess with Heavenly Father's will for our family. We learned after having Halea that his plan for our lives is way better than anything we can come up with on our own. So, when it happens, we'll be glad to have our family complete.

Wonderful Thitho Weekend

I had a glorious weekend with my sisters. It was nice to be able to see them ~ and we even got a night out away from the kiddos. We saw Love Happens ~ a movie I'd never be able to drag Ryan to. Before we went to the movies we stopped for slurpees and the clerk gave me a coupon for a free one ~ AWESOME!!! We took the kids to the playground each night. My sisters watched our kids so Ryan and I could go to a coug's football game ~ they won. It was a great weekend!

SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!

Tomorrow we're going to visit my sisters (yes both) in Pullman. Ryan is especially good with it because that's where he spent five college years. It's been fun to hear about his fraternity and it's sweet to see how much he enjoys looking back on those years. So he's happy, and I'm thrilled to see my sisters ~ it's a win~win!

Is this mean?

It's our tradition to have our kids get their faces painted, so I thought we would try with Halea.

Fun at the Fair '09

We had such a good time at the fair! We do it each year, and each year it's about the same, but always an enjoyable experience (especially because I wasn't pregnant this year and could ride the big kid rides)!